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Except during Covid, the air pollution from burning from around mid-February for several months has been a problem for people in the North. The smoke is not only local, but also coming from Burma and Laos. If you are planning on cycling for exercise, it might be better to use that interval for visits elsewhere. Ironically, I live in the center and find the pollution nowhere near as bad as pollution showing on the map for areas where well-to-do foreigners live, such as Mae Rim, north of Chiang Mai. Before Covid, that was spikes up to 230 where I live vs 500 in Mae Rim. Normally, such as now, in our open kitchen the reading is 4. In the city, you could stay in the Nimman area where there are many better restaurants, upscale shopping, and a lot of nighttime activity. Inside the moat, not far from Wat Phra Singh is the Rachamankha Hotel, which has good traditional food plus excellent design a cut above the rest. https://www.rachamankha.com/?page=about_rachamankha_architecture . I am not assuming that you are looking for a cheap place to retire as others on this forum seem to think. Thai food in Boston is absolutely dreadful, though my Thai-American doc at Brigham recommended their temple if I wanted to eat Thai.

Maybe Netanyahu and his fellow scoundrels will get their chance to defend themselves - in the Hague!

Biden's numbers are hardly relevant. Many Democrats don't want him to run again, thus his low numbers. As for second poll, for now there's not much choice, but that could change if the prospect of a viable Palestinian state emerged. That would require a new Israeli government capable of reassessing the national interest, plus a plan to remove all problematic settlements from the West Bank and otherwise make West Bank and Gaza a place where Palestinians can live unmolested.

It helps but doesn't prevent transmission for certain.

Getting Marwan Barghouti out of an Israeli prison is just a small detail compared to what else must be done to have a viable Palestinian state. Barghouti has not yet been in prison as long as Mandela was.

Admittedly, in my case the concern goes farther than the gastro-intestinal tract. Maybe not the case for the OP.

That's so long ago I don't remember that - 1990?

Capsule camera: Is there another way to investigate the small intestine? I am thinking of having a Gallium 68 PET scan for tumors in the abdomen (including intestines). Would not deal with absorption issue for OP, though.

Once fake news. propaganda, is out there it gets repeated by credible people. Remember the beheaded babies cited by Biden?

Thank you for mentioning the settlers. The pogroms which they visit on the indigenous people cause great outrage in Gaza, too, I suppose. These attacks are done with impunity in the presence of IDF. As for the celebration with sweets, it's like the prisoners celebrating a jailbreak. Had they already seen the horrific videos? I remember reading of a call from a Hamas killer to his parents in Gaza, reported in a recent Israeli government video. When the son said how he was a hero for killing a number of people and asked his dad for approval, dad told him to come home. Parents sounded unhappy with him.

To really understand why the US has vetoed so many Security Council resolutions, you have to know about this: Sorry it's a long read, around 500 pages. Most people only know about AIPAC, Anti-defamation League - tip of the iceberg. Unless a lot of people know about this, how the US Congress is cowed, it will be very difficult for there to be peace in the Middle East.

The "dual use" excuse is really a pretext for ethnic cleansing. Putinesque.

As of last night it seems that all cell communication in Gaza has been cut, internet, too, so that then people outside Gaza can no longer see the massacre in real time. Al Jazeera was using satellite to send out news.

And Marie-Antionette said "Let them eat cake" (if they have no bread).

The supporters of Israel pose questions such as which form of death is more humane just to confuse the readers with irrelevancies, while denouncing statements of objection as "nonsense". Civilian death by whatever means is just part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

What's the point in your gratuitous sniping? Ethnic cleansing is not funny.

Each must have an office with its own bathroom, so don't worry.

Mentioning the Ten Point Program is an obfuscation. It dates from 1974 according to the Wikipedia entry which you cite. At the top of this entry are the following warnings: "This article has multiple issues." "This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards." The Saudi proposal dates from 2002. It is about peace, not rejection. It was rejected immediately by Israel, but at times US presidents have supported it "on paper". Israel has never made a counter offer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Peace_Initiative There were some negotiations regarding the Bush Roadmap for Peace end with the Annapolis Conference in 2007, but this went no where since Israel was unwilling to give up control over West Bank borders, vacate settlements, or agree to genuine Palestinian sovereignty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapolis_Conference Among the comments by Rabbi Dov Lior of the Yesha Rabbis Council: "Lior further stated that peace would only be achieved by "[cleansing] the country of Arabs and [resettling] them in the countries where they came from."[29]" At present the question is whether Israel will end up digging itself a hole so deep that the world will find ways to force it to end the Greater Israel project.

At least he does a very good explanation of how we got here, which helps in the understanding of some way out of this mess. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-bottom-line/2023/10/21/why-does-the-us-not-support-a-ceasefire-in-gaza

You can deny all you want. I hope that in the end Israelis will come to a realization that they must have a constitution that embodies the aspirations of their Declaration of Independence.

Hope springs eternal.

Before saying I'm being absurd, please read the Amnesty report. The housing discrimination is pervasive and state policy rather than lower level discrimination such as 'red lining' in the US. I can't put links from Haaretz etc since I'm away from home now.

You can read the Amnesty report to find out why Israel proper is also judged to be practicing apartheid against its Arab citizens. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/ There are reports on housing discrimination, for example, in various newspaper reports. If you want to know about this, try googling.

Daniel Levy certainly thinks that a two state solution is possible, but then he is not one of those craven ones called "politicians".

To your last point, up to now, Israelis have disregarded the situation of the Palestinians, so settlement activity and apartheid could continue, until the Palestinians disappeared, perhaps? Now Hamas has gotten the attention of not only Israelis, but the world. Perhaps the consensus will arrive at a viable two state solution sooner rather than later.